Return to Local Control: Reality and Rhetoric of Democratic Empowerment and Community Agency in New Orleans

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Local Contexts, Conditions, and Concerns in School Choice

Abstract

Much of the research on charter schools investigates how market mechanisms function, with little research exploring the impact on community, and particularly community agency. Through content and discourse analysis, and original data collection this study examines the policy context surrounding Louisiana’s SB 432, which returns all of the state run charter schools to local control, and seeks to decipher whether the bill was sold, intended, and perceived as a mechanism to increase democratic participation among the New Orleans community.

Author

• Emily Germain, The University of Texas - Austin